Short cut to cracking the Cheteshwar Pujara code

Pujara staged a sit in at the crease in the last Border Gavaskar trophy but the Australians know one way to crack this Enigma Code

Cheteshwar Pujara was an immovable object on India’s previous tour of Australia Picture: Getty Images

It took Australia two sessions, 140 balls and 51 runs to work out a method of dismissing India’s immovable object, Cheteshwar Pujara, in the tour match at Drummoyne Oval on Sunday.

It’s an improvement on last time when it took them 830 deliveries and the best part of 22 hours to crack what had, until then, proved to be cricket’s Enigma Code.

It wasn’t like he was plundering runs all that time. In deed, to that point he’d made 331 at an average of 65 which was very good, but not the point.

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The issue with the batsman was that he hung around. In 2018-19 Pujara made like a backpacker, taking up residence on the couch and control of the remote.

He. Just. Would. Not. Leave. The. Crease.

He left a lot of balls. A hell of a lot of balls, but it didn’t matter if he was scoring or not scoring. In Perth he batted for almost three hours to score 27. No Indian batsman ever faced so many balls on a tour of Australia as he. Not even Rahul ‘The Wall’ Dravid.

The Australians had Pujara caught at a leg gully on Sunday early in the third session. James Pattinson was bowling short and sharp when he got one up and under his armpit that Pujara could not control.

Pat Cummins employed the same approach at the MCG in 2018 when he knocked Pujara over in the first innings for 106 and for duck in the second innings. At the time it felt like an epiphany.

Tim Paine gave Travis Head the chance to captain in the tour match which has first-class status. Both were present when the code was cracked last year and presumably will be there when the first Test is played in Adelaide later this month. Hopefully they will have made a note of the tactic.

“At the start we were trying to get him caught behind and in the slips, that was the way it was playing, but once the ball got softer it became more stump to stump,” Head said. “I guess you rotate through plans A, B and C.”

Australia's Will Pucovski in the field at Drummoyne Oval Picture: Phil Hillyard

The innings of note on the day was a first-knock-out-of-quarantine, unbeaten 108 to Ajinkya Rahane. His and Pujara’s innings were impressive given the amount of bounce in the wicket and the lack of cricket both have played since arriving. India finished the day 8-237.

It’s an interesting time for both the Australian and Indian teams who have had to split themselves into two camps with some preparing for the Tests at Drummoyne and the others involved in the T20 circus over at the SCG.

Pattinson, Paine, Cummins, Joe Burns, Will Pucovski, Cameron Green and Michael Neser are in the A team and the Test squad. Marcus Harris is at the game and could get included in the Test squad if things go his way. Or should get included if things go his way.

All but one of the Indians playing are a chance to play the first Test but there were a few guns across at the SCG who will start before them – starting with Virat Kohli and not finishing at Jasprit Bumrah.

For Australia this game was supposed to be a bat off between Pucovski and Burns, but with David Warner almost certain not to play it is assumed they will both open. There is fair argument that given Burns run of low scores in the Sheffield Shield this summer and Warner’s absence – excluding any notions of “chemistry” from the selection argument – that Harris should be back in consideration.

There was a moment when all three had a foot race from slips to the boundary to fetch a ball. Pucovski won but the real interest will come when Australia bats.

It was also a chance to get another look at Green who sent down eight sharp overs where his ability to get a ball to lift off a length was evident, but more focus will be when he bats.

Mitchell Starc has had to pull out of the remaining T20s due to a family illness, should that situation extend to the Test match Australia will be comfortable knowing that Pattinson is in form. The Victorian quick removed opener Shubman Gill with his first delivery before knocking over Pujara and later Ravi Ashwin. Neser had the exciting Prithvi Shaw out first delivery which made it a pretty unhappy first innings for both batsmen who have had been forced to wait before they could play cricket in this country.